Pharmacy generally began with the compounding of medicines, which entailed the actual mixing and preparing of medications. Heretofore, pharmacy has been, to a great extent, a profession of dispensing, that is, the pouring, counting, and labeling of a prescription, and subsequently transferring the dispensed medication to the patient. Because of the repetitiveness of many of the pharmacist's tasks, automation of these tasks has been desirable.
Some attempts have been made to automate the pharmacy environment. Different exemplary approaches are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,919 to Spaulding et al. and U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,006,946; 6,036,812 and 6,176,392 to Williams et al. The Williams system conveys a bin with tablets to a counter and a vial to the counter. The counter dispenses tablets to the vial. Once the tablets have been dispensed, the system returns the bin to its original location and conveys the vial to an output device. Tablets may be counted and dispensed with any number of counting devices. Drawbacks to these systems typically include the relatively low speed at which prescriptions are filled and the absence in these systems of securing a closure (i.e., a lid) on the container after it is filled.
One additional automated system for dispensing pharmaceuticals is described in some detail in U.S. Pat. No. 6,971,541 to Williams et al. This system has the capacity to select an appropriate vial, label the vial, fill the vial with a desired quantity of a selected pharmaceutical tablet, apply a cap to the filled vial, and convey the labeled, filled, capped vial to an offloading station for retrieval. The system discussed therein employs forced air that agitates tablets within a bin. The agitated tablets are conveyed via suction in singulated fashion through an outlet into the vial.
Typically a system like that discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,971,541 to Williams et al. has a section of the offload station for “exceptions,” which are vials that are unsuitable for distribution to customers. Potential reasons for exceptions include an incorrect number of tablets in the vial, incorrect or inadequate labeling, an uncapped or loosely capped vial, and the like. Because the system is highly automated, it is desirable to provide an area in which a robotic arm or other carrier that moves the vial within the system can drop off exceptions for subsequent handling by a pharmacist or technician. The exception area would desirably be easily accessible from the exterior of the system (i.e., similar access to that for correctly filled vials), yet would also account for the possibility of vials being uncapped or loosely capped, such that tablets would not spill from the vial upon placement of the vial in the exception area or removal therefrom.